The present invention relates generally to improvements in a known diagnostic screening procedure implemented by administering a reading or symbol-recognition test that effectively identifies children, even of pre-school age, as having cerebellar-vestibular dysfunctions and, in medical parlance, being affected with dysmetric dyslexia wherein the improvements, more particularly, retain the substantive validity of the test and are in the nature of the administration of the test to the end of contributing significantly to the accuracy of the test, as will be better understood as the description proceeds.
It is already known, as set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 3,842,822 for xe2x80x9cDysmetric Dyslexia Screening Procedurexe2x80x9d, issued to Harold N. Levinson on Oct. 22, 1974, of the discoveries involving children, some possibly dysmetric dyslexic and others not, of an eye oscillation of a selected extent which is normally below the level which produces blurred vision in those children not affected with dysmetric dyslexia but, in those children affected with dysmetric dyslexia, the noted eye oscillation in response to a reading or symbol-recognition exercise is increased to a higher extent which produces blurred vision, while the non-susceptible children continue to read without reporting any blurring.
To take full advantage of the benefits of the noted discoveries, it was administered heretofore to a classroom-filled audience since to the audience, it was like watching a movie and thus was a pleasant activity well known to each participant. The test results to a significant extent correlated with the conditions of those affected with dysmetric dyslexia and those not so affected but, in practice, there was noted a variation in successive testing of a child participant, the cause of which was not understood.
Broadly, it is an object of the present invention to continue achieving the benefits of the noted diagnostic screening procedure but without any variation or other shortcomings of the prior art.
More particularly, it is an object of the invention to obviate audience-influencing behavior which has now been diagnosed as the cause of the noted variation, and thus achieve a more accurate correlation between test results and those children who are and who are not afflicted with dysmetric dyslexia.